Babrak Karmal

Babrak Karmal (6 January 1929-3 December 1996) was President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986. He succeeded Hafizullah Amin and preceded Mohammed Najibullah.

Biography
Karmal was a Pashtun of Afghanistan, and was imprisoned many times for radical conspiracy against the Kingdom of Afghanistan in the 1960s. Karmal became a convert to Marxism during his time in prison with Mir Akbar Khyber, and when the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan took power in 1979 from the revolutionary government, Karmal became its President.

Karmal's accession to power with aid from the Soviet Union angered the Pashtun people of Afghanistan, who formed the Mujahideen to fight against the Soviets and communist Afghans. Karmal's term was plagued with warfare in the Soviet-Afghan War, and 1986 saw defeat at the Battle of Khost. The Russians deposed him that year, replacing him with Mohammed Najibullah.

In the later 1980s, he aided the resistance against Najibullah and allied with the Northern Alliance in the 1990s. He died of liver cancer in 1996.